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The Little Prince Summary (Part 2)
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The narrator is worried that now he has grown too old to properly remember
how the little prince had looked. Instead of relying on figures like an adult,
he has decided to draw pictures of him. Even though he can no longer see sheep
through the walls of boxes, he hopes that he can bring the little prince
back to life.
As the days pass in the desert, the pilot learns more
about the little prince's planet. He finds out that the little prince wants
the sheep to eat the baobabs that grow on his planet. Baobabs are large
tree-like weeds whose roots can secretly grow underground and split a
planet into pieces. They can become so big that even a herd of elephants would
not be able to eat all of them. The little prince exclaims that one must be
very careful to take care of one's planet just as they would take care of
themselves. It is hard to distinguish between good and bad seeds, so it is
very important to watch out
for baobabs. Lazy men often let small bushes grow, not realizing that they
are baobabs until it is too late. The narrator feels that this is such an
important lesson to be learned that he takes extra special care with a
drawing of baobabs destroying a small planet.
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On the fourth day, the pilot learns just how small the
little prince's planet really is. The little prince wants to see a sunset,
and is surprised to learn that on Earth he must wait till evening to see
one. The narrator notes that on a large planet like the Earth, when it is
noon in America, the sun is setting in France, while on a small asteroid,
someone can see the end of the day whenever they like. He can hardly believe that
the little prince once saw forty-four sunsets in one day.
On the fifth day, the pilot had discovered the secret of
the little prince's life. Without any reason in particular, the little prince
wonders if his new sheep will eat both bushes and flowers. The pilot tells him
that sheep eat anything, but the little prince does not believe him: he
says that flowers with thorns can protect themselves. The two get into a
heated argument and the pilot asks not to be disturbed from rebuilding his
plane, while the little prince reprimands him for behaving like an adult.
The little prince exclaims that if someone knows of a rare flower that exists
only on his planet out of the millions and millions of others then it
is perfectly rational to wonder if a sheep will eat it. Ashamed of his
attitude, the pilot tries to comfort the little prince by offering to
draw a muzzle for the sheep so that he may not eat the flower.
The flower that the little prince mentions turns out to
have been one of the most important parts of his life. One day, a seed
mysteriously blew onto his planet and produced a flower different from any other the
little prince had ever seen. The flower turns out to be a rose, a beautiful
but vain creature who constantly demands that the little prince take care of
her. He loves her very much and is thus happy to water her, protect her with
a screen by day, and cover her with a glass globe by night. But the little
prince soon doubts that the rose loves him, believing that her words are not
sincere. He grows so unhappy that he decides to leave, later lamenting his
failure to judge by deeds and not words. It is only after he leaves that he
understands how she expressed affection, realizing that he was too young to
know how to love her.
The narrator is of the opinion that that the little prince
used a flock of migrating birds to escape from his planet. On the day of
his departure he put everything in order, cleaned out all of his three
volcanoes, including even the extinct one. The rose ignores his good-byes at
first but soon asks for forgiveness, admitting that she loves him. But she is
too proud to ask the little prince to stay with her and claims that she will
get along fine without him. She urges him to leave and turns away so that
he will not see her cry.
Click here for part 3 of the summary of
The Little Prince |
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